China issued 9.06 million tonnes of refined fuel export quotas under so-called processing trade terms in its third batch of quotas, two trading sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

Under the general trade category, refiners get tax refunds after exports are completed or get a tax waiver on fuel exports, a policy that Beijing granted in 2016. (Reuters)

China issued 9.06 million tonnes of refined fuel export quotas under so-called processing trade terms in its third batch of quotas, two trading sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday. This raises the total number of permits under this category to 24.76 million tonnes in 2017. The quotas will be valid till the end of this year and were assigned to China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Sinopec Corp, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and Sinochem Group, the sources said. These quotas are different from the 7.605 million tonnes of export quotas the Chinese government have issued under a separate general trade category. The Ministry of Commerce did not immediately comment. Combined, China has granted 32.365 million tonnes of fuel export quotas this year, and all to the same four state oil companies. China earlier this year barred the country’s independent oil plants from exporting fuel. Of the latest batch of tolling quotas, Sinopec won 5.05 million tonnes, followed by CNPC at 2.7 million tonnes, Sinochem at 700,000 tonnes and CNOOC at 610,000 tonnes.

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Under the general trade category, refiners get tax refunds after exports are completed or get a tax waiver on fuel exports, a policy that Beijing granted in 2016. Under the processing rules, refiners are exempted from import taxes on crude oil and export taxes for oil products, but have fixed volumes and time slots to export, both under the tight scrutiny of Chinese customs.